3 Resource Portfolio Management Success Stories

Many organizations can benefit from resource portfolio management (RPM) – a solution that puts all its power into looking after your resources. In this post we share three resource portfolio management success stories to see how the approach works in different sectors.

3 resource portfolio management success stories

Lots of organizations leverage the power of project and portfolio solutions to help them plan, execute and deliver projects from start to finish. Popular products provide many of the tools that project managers require. However, many find there’s room for improvement in one particular area – managing resources. These traditional PPM tools do not provide sophisticated tools dedicated to resources, leading to:

Poor resource visibility across projects

An inability to predict and plan for future outcomes

Confusion across large teams and multiple geographies

At ProSymmetry, we put resources first, which is why we refer to our flagship product, Tempus Resource, as a solution for resource portfolio management rather than project portfolio management.

Since launching Tempus Resource in 2007, we find that project managers who use the big PPM solutions for resources keep coming up against the same problems. What’s more, they find that Tempus Resource is a real game-changer. Here are three success stories that illustrate how resource portfolio management can be transformative.

Siemens Healthineers – improving resource visibility

Siemens Healthineers is a leading global medical technology company and subsidiary of Siemens AG. Its goal is to help its customers deliver high-quality medical and patient care in the most efficient and affordable manner.

Before using Tempus Resource, the main challenge was dealing with the number of projects on the go at any one time. They were using a combination of different tools, including Excel, which wasn’t giving them the visibility required. Because of this, they found it hard to keep track of all the projects everyone was working on – smaller projects would often go ‘under the radar’.

Tempus Resource gave Siemens the visibility and insight to take back control of these projects. The results were transformative. They reduced their project cycle time, so much so that they predict that they will be able to execute about 30% to 35% more projects. Dirk Nadler, Sr. Multi Project Manager for Research and Development, put it like this:

“[Tempus Resource has] changed how we go about resource management, the workload of our employees, how we handle conflicts, etc., as well as helping us make the tough decisions when we see that the organization is overloaded.”

Silverchair – ‘predicting the future’

Silverchair is a leading product development partner to top-tier scientific, technical and medical (STM) clients worldwide. Since 1993, Silverchair has worked with many prominent names in the STM community, including publishers, professional associations and societies, governmental agencies and academic medical centers.

One of the PMO’s problems at Silverchair was that, due to the fast-paced nature of the STM research market, they were constantly under time pressures to plan and deliver multiple, wide-ranging projects. What they were lacking was a way to make accurate predictions about future outcomes. As Zikki Munyao, Director of the PMO for Silverchair, explains:

“We were looking for a tool that would help us see into the future and align our resources with current projects as well as with our future pipeline.”

Tempus Resource gave Silverchair the ability to run ‘what-if’ scenarios, so they could predict and then analyze future outcomes based on possible scenarios, revolutionizing their project planning.

Airbus – overcoming confusion with great UI

With more than 1,700 staff at 19 sites across Australia and New Zealand, Airbus Group Australia Pacific assembles and delivers 47 MRH90 multi-role helicopters for the Australian Army and Navy and also provides the military with support for 22 Tiger ARH armed reconnaissance helicopters.

Problems arose for Airbus Group Australia Pacific because they were using many different software solutions to manage resources. This was leading to confusion across the many sites that made up the company. As Michael Choudhury, Business Solutions Manager, explains:

“Because we work across a large geographical area and our resources exist both onshore and offshore, a higher level of organization, collaboration and communication are vital for us to do our jobs well—meaning completing projects on time, and to budget.”

With Tempus Resource, Airbus found a solution that its users found simple and intuitive to use. Compared to the confusion and chaos caused by the combination of the different tools used previously and a history of poor adoption rates, they finally found a solution they could trust.

It really doesn’t matter what industry you are in or the size of your organization, whether you have 500 resources or 5000, taking a resource portfolio management approach instead of or in conjunction with your PPM solution can revolutionize how work gets done at your organization.